Urbaser Ltd contracts include the Gloucestershire energy from waste project run with Balfour Beatty, waste treatment services for Essex and Southend-on-Sea councils, recycling collections for Bournemouth and waste services for Burnley.
Actividades de Construccion y Servicios (ACS) is the Spanish-parent company of Urbaser and has significant interests in the construction sector. It is now exiting the waste arena and in a statement on Monday (26 September) said that an agreement had been reached with Firion Investments, a company controlled by a Chinese group, for the sale of its total stake in Urbaser SA – (the Spanish Urbaser business which includes the UK division).
Firion is paying between 1.1 million and 1.4 million Euros for the deal which “is subject to customary approvals”.
Investment fund
Various Chinese buyers are thought to have looked at acquiring Urbaser. Spanish media are reporting that Ying Zhan Investment Ltd are involved with the acquisition while reports from Hong Kong suggest that the Huayu green investment fund is linked. One of the stakeholders in Huaya is listed as Jiangsu Dagang Co, in which both Jiangsu Dagang Co and China Tianying Inc, the latter being involved in waste infrastructure in China.
Urbaser UK said it could not comment on the proposed agreement for sale with the matter being handled from Spain.
Interest in the UK’s waste management sector from the Far East is expected to continue with various ideas of deals circulating within the waste sector. Currently these seem to focus on where energy from waste plants are involved.
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